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LSP · Joined: 09 May 2004 Posts: 56

I'm curious seeing that everyone here has a movie day/week/month with your classes, so what movies do you all watch with them? Personaly I want to bring a few movies that show some of my true American culture instead of mindless action and formula flicks. BTW is there any limit on what I can and can't show?

anthyp · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 1320 Location: Chicago, IL USA

Great question! I know it's a "mindless action flick," but one of my classes absolutely loved "The Matrix," and didn't mind talking about it afterwards (ostensibly the reason for watching it). I am thinking of showing them "The Godfather" because it portrays an exciting time in America's history, and involves lots of cultural assimilation issues (though I am trying to find something that involves less talking in a non - English language). I know someone (kev?) was showing his students "Dances with Wolves," which has lots of gorgeous shots of the West, yes, and also portrays an important time in our nation's history - but I think it's rather slow for my students.

Ludwig · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 6:26 am Post subject:

'LSP', out of interest, what is your "true American culture"?

Tao Burp · Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 118 Location: CHINA

Try Taxi Driver. I showed it, and then stopped the movie where Deniro is looking in the mirror, "You lookin' at me? You lookin' at me?" From that point, I talked about the staring issue. They got the message after they watched the rest of the film. Very Happy

Seriously, most of them will not understand the English language in the films, just bits and pieces. In my own opinion, you would be better to wait until you come over, and then buy VCDs here dirt cheap; instead of dragging your video cassettes here. If it's on film, it's on VCD here.

Giantbudwiser · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 6:42 am Post subject:

TRY A WET AND WILD...SIMPLE DIALOG'S IN THERE

kev7161 · Joined: 06 Feb 2004 Posts: 5880 Location: Suzhou, China

Yeah, I'm showing "Dances With Wolves" to my Senior 2 kids and I think about 95% are just LOVING it. There is romance, action, drama, humor, sadness . . . all the emotions you could want. It is a beautiful piece and does portray some important themes:

1. Assimilation of one man (John Dunbar) into a completely different culture (the Sioux). Not only do they learn about things from him but he also learns many valuable lessons from the Sioux.

2. The importance of learning a different language. I love how they each get confused with each other's languages and how both sides attempt to learn the languages.

I show the movie in English with Chinese subtitles. I wish my students had enough English so I could show with English subtitles, but that is not the case. What I do to make up for this is write up a questionnaire which they have to answer while they watch the movie. Multiple choice questions and short, open-ended questions. (What do you think will happen next type). Then at the end, they have to write an assessment of the movie and we will discuss ideas in class. It's a long movie and it has taken up 4 classtimes so far (45 minute classes) with one more to go tomorrow. Then we spend a period talking about it, so you must have some time to invest.

The Great Wall of Whiner · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 4946 Location: Blabbing

I showed my kids (ages 11-13) "The Dark Crystal" and most of them were afraid of it! "Looks too real! Looks too scary!" were some of the comments I recieved.

Jeez! Rolling Eyes

It's a kids' movie! What was so scary about it...

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

kev7161 · Joined: 06 Feb 2004 Posts: 5880 Location: Suzhou, China

Oh, forgot to add: My Senior One students are watching (or have just finished) "Peter Pan" (the newest version that came out earlier this year or late last year). Quite frankly, I loved it myself and all four of my classes were enraptured by the beauty, the action, the romance, and on and on.

I almost thought it would be too cheesy (and the first 15 minutes or so are really slow) - - - but it worked and I plan on showing it next year to my new crop of students.

As for bad Chinese translations: I have discovered that USUALLY if you buy the better quality DVDs (and the movies have been out for awhile - - - not these quickie filmed-in-a-movie-theater ones), the translations will be more accurate to the tone of the film. I always ask Chinese friends that come over "how is the Chinese?" and they tell me if it is good or bad.

ranmawoman · Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 64 Location: San Francisco, CA

[quote="The Great Wall of Whiner"]I showed my kids (ages 11-13) "The Dark Crystal" and most of them were afraid of it! "Looks too real! Looks too scary!" were some of the comments I recieved.

Jeez! Rolling Eyes

It's a kids' movie! What was so scary about it...[/quote]

Hey!!! I'm afraid of Dark Crystal! Those muppets are creepy! Evil or Very Mad

The Great Wall of Whiner · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 4946 Location: Blabbing

Scary?

Nothing scary about the movie at all!

The little fuzzy dog was cute, the boy-elf was all kind and nice, the girl elf was, well... Embarassed

(too bad she is a muppet that's all I can say).

The good guy magical mystics are not creepy either. They look like kindly old grandfathers.

Nothing scary about the movie I say...NOTHING!

randyj · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:51 pm Post subject:

Most students would probably find movies an interesting way to approach the study of language and culture. The website http://www.english-behind-the-scenes.com looks promising. Different movies have lessons designed around them already. I definitely plan to try it in future.

sbucha004 · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 7 Location: shandong, china

i work out in the country, i found the thing to be most careful about is sex in movies... some students walked out of a movie because they were offended (so i heard)... i don't remember what i showed but it didn't have any sex scenes, just some skimpy clothing and what i consider rather innocent kissing scenes, and that's when some people left... they all request love movies, but it has to be very innocent... they also will say they don't want to watch kids' movies but i found those to be the ones they enjoyed most, as long as i didn't let on it was for children... my students really liked that rugrats-wild thornberry movie, along with uptown girls, wizard of oz, mission impossible 1 and 2, and harry potter... they thought pirates of the carribean was scary... oh, i showed whale rider to just a few and they liked it, and they loved nightmare before christmas... it was great for teaching about holidays too... they also liked big fish...

lagerlout2006 · Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 985

This term I was in a high school..Watching Princess Diaries---the school approved of this--silly nonsense just right for them....One day I left the class---students went into my bag and found Bram Stokers Dracula...Did I get an earful over that when the head teacher caught them watching it. HA.

College students I will let them watch just about anything...I won't play censor...Obviously though in mixed company it would be rude to show anything too graphic...Really IMO showing a movie is just giving them a free class. They might pick up a phrase or 2...The only way it might work is a carefully selected scene from something...Give them a script and show it several times...Let them watch the entire movie another time...

Lets not get all highbrow and pretend we are "conveying Western culture" by screening a film we want to see more than they do...Better they watch in their own time.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Lagerlout, don't be a spoil sport. Wink

I've actually designed a course at my university called Current English. Half the year is on the internet and the other half is on movies (yes, it is for credit). This is the third year now I've taught it. Movies that have doen well are: Shawshank Redemption, Indiana Jones: Raiders of the lost ark, LOTR was really tough (but I didn't have subtitiles on that one), Rain Man, and the Insider. I'm considering Lost in Translation (I'm in Japan) and Midnight Express (don't show this in Turkey) next semester.

It's important to try and show them movies they haven't seen before.